June 12, 2017

Liberals pull out all the entertainment stops

Some liberals have moved on from ranting about president Trump winning the election to once again using their strong suit (the entertainment industry) to disparage the president. I'm not expecting much from Roseanne Barr's show reboot. That is not much new. Meanwhile, the NYT newspaper is sponsoring a president Trump assassination Julius Caesar play. For real.

New York's venerated theater organization, the Public Theater, is facing a PR disaster over its long-running free "Shakespeare in the Park" series. The organization is mounting a production of Julius Caesar, which (spoiler alert!) ends with the Roman politician being assassinated. Many far-right online personas—including Donald Trump Jr.—consider this to be offensive given that Caesar appears Trump-like in this particular production. (It depicts him with blonde hair and modern attire.)

A flurry of online trolling and hysteria over the show has resulted in two corporate sponsors—Bank of America and Delta—cutting ties with the Public Theater. But not everyone is ready to cut and run. Today the New York Times, another corporate sponsor, confirmed to me that it will continue supporting the theater.